ABSTRACT
Long after the first settlers, English people continued to emigrate across the Atlantic; but by the middle of the seventeenth century most were going to settled colonies that already had governments, churches, markets, land distribu tion patterns, Indian policies, and histories. By the later part of the century, an English emigrant would encounter not just other English emigrants, but creoles; that is, English people native to the colonies. Because migration continued to account for much of the population growth, there is no clear line between generations. But gradu ally a creole culture developed, with institutions, customs, and sensibilities to which newly arrived colonists had to adapt. This chapter begins with the diary of John Winthrop, who led nearly a thousand people on the so-called Great M igration of 1630; it ends with the diary of Sarah Kemble Knight, who was born in Boston and daydreamed about a London she only encountered in books.
